Polymer (macromolecular) materials are increasingly utilized in many fields in recent years. Along with this, the surface and interface properties thereof as well as the features of the polymer as a matrix become important in each field. For example, properties thereof related to interface control, such as water repellency, oil repellency, antifouling property, non-stickiness, separation properties, mold release properties, smoothness, wear resistance, anti-reflective properties, and chemical resistance, are expected to be improved by using a fluorine compound with low surface free energy as a surface modifier, which therefore has been proposed in various kinds.
Fluoropolymers are widely used in the upper-most layer of various plastic films on the surface of displays such as LCDs (liquid crystal displays), PDPs (plasma displays), and touch panels so as to provide an anti-scratch hard coating. These fluoropolymers are being introduced as a material for preventing fingerprints and smudges from adhering and for easily removing adhered fingerprints and smudges.
However, conventional materials have disadvantages when used in applications such as mobile phones that directly touch facial sebum and in applications such as touch panels that fingers touch frequently; fingerprints and smudges still tend to adhere, and fingerprints and smudges such as sebum are repelled due to the water repellency and oil repellency, so that they become more visible. Besides, rubbing the display surface with a cloth or tissue paper so as to remove fingerprints and sebum smudges makes the fingerprints and sebum smudges into fine liquid drops to cause diffuse reflection of light, which makes the surface look cloudy, leaving the adherents even more visible than they had been prior to wiping.
Another research has been conducted on coating agents that include a lipophilic polymer in order to spread fingerprints and smudges of sebum components so as to make them less visible. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a graft polymer synthesized by a reaction of an aliphatic acrylic monomer.